Negotiating Childlessness in the Middle Ages

Stories of Desired, Refused, and Regretted Parenthood
Neuausgabe 2025
ISBN: 978-1-80270-244-6
Verlag: Arc Humanities Press

Buch, Englisch, 238 Seiten, Format (B × H): 262 mm x 166 mm, Gewicht: 512 g

Reihe: Borderlines

This book examines the ways in which people wrote about and engaged with infertility in the German Middle Ages. Striking differences emerge across the vernacular stories, legends, and romances concerned. For some, childlessness is a huge problem, for others, a high ideal. Regina Toepfer considers the reasons for these differences, and how ideas changed over the period, revealing different narrative patterns that shape stories of childlessness right up to the present day.

These range from the late fulfilment of the longing to have children, assisted by divine or demonic help; through social and religious alternatives to parenthood; to the conscious decision to remain childless and achieve happiness through partnership alone. Bringing German source material to an English readership for the first time, this book provides fresh insights on childlessness that engage with current debates about sperm donation, adoption, and being childfree.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Toepfer, Regina

Weitere Mitwirkende

Sotejeff-Wilson, Kate

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Vor- und Frühgeschichte, prähistorische Archäologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturgeschichte und Literaturkritik
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations

Introduction

Chapter 1. Divine Help: Waiting for a Child

Chapter 2. Dangerous Third Parties: A Child at any Price

Chapter 3. Social Alternatives: Taking in a Child

Chapter 4. Mystical Motherhood: Venerating the Child

Chapter 5. Forced Parenthood: Regretting a Child

Chapter 6. Chaste Marriage: Not Wanting a Child

Chapter 7. Courtly Love: Happy Regardless of Children

Epilogue

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Toepfer, Regina
Regina Toepfer is Chair of Medieval German Literature at the University of Würzburg in Germany. Her research fields are narratology, translation history, and gender studies.